admin
September 15, 2010
From
RETAILER, Varun Jain
September
2010
Vishal Retail is reeling under a debt of Rs 730cr; Subhiksha has already closed all their 1600 outlets; Wadhawan Retail’s ambitious retail chain, Spinach, ran out of steam in this competitive retail scenario; and Raymond’s Be: Home, a home furnishings retail format, is already a thing of past.
These are a few examples of big retailers who could not able to sustain their retail businesses, while other players struggled successfully to be on the road to recovery. Let’s do a reality check, as in what other players did right to be still in the game and what went wrong with the formers.
Faulty Expansion Plan
"Retail is a long term game, where there is no immediate success. For this a business should be capitalised keeping the long term investments and returns in perspective", opines Mr Purnendu Kumar, Associate VP, Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd. An expansion primarily with a debt can lead to serious troubles, and it happened with Subhiksha, he adds.
Many retail business in India, initially adopted an experimental strategy for their retail venture, in the absence of organised retail history. "It is important that for further expansion, there is a clear strategy in tune with the company’s vision. Retailers must understand the needs of their target or captive customers, and offer appropriate products through the right formats backed by appropriate services to build customer loyalty. There is a need for a strong back-end foundation in terms of merchandising and supply chain that is efficient and aligned to the targeted scale of operations", opines Ms Tarang Gautam Saxena, Sr. Consultant, Third Eyesight.
It is rather a paradox that discount retailers such as Subhiksha and Vishal Retail have run into difficulty during the business slump when they could have been thriving. Ms Saxena further feels that Subhiksha tried to do too many things for many people in its ambition to scale up rapidly. Its rapid growth across multiple product categories and through different formats clearly was not sustainable. Further, the scale of its operations (1,650 stores), making losses did not go down well with consumers. Vishal Retail may have experienced some difficulties on account of financing, but the main issue they needed to address was related to merchandising and supply chain.
Mr RC Agarwal, MD, Vishal Retail Ltd. also admits that and comments, "Coupled with the external challenge of global turmoil, our overambitious expansion plan and low consumer sentiment brought us in a challenging situation". Vishal Retail Ltd, with 170 outlets countrywide, is seeking to reschedule debt of around Rs730 crore. Café Coffee Day, the largest and the most successful café chain in the country, understand the market and its potential extremely well before taking on expansion, confirms K Ramakrishnan, President- Marketing, CCD. We gauge the catchment in terms of the number of footfalls that could be, and ensure that we can undertake conversions before we open an outlet, he informs.
Where Else Does the Problem Lie?
Wadhawan Retail, which downed shutters of their Spinach stores operating across Mumbai and Kolkata, has interests in real estate, retail, financial services, education and hospitality, and runs operations in India, the UAE and UK. They didn’t take their business too seriously, and if reports are to be believed, the caretakers of the company were busy looking after their real estate business and many suppliers backed out from their commitment with the company because of the non-payment of the bills, which were huge.
In case of food retailing, this is one segment which is very difficult to manage. "This is more so in the food and grocery business where the trade margins are lower and there is a very strong competition from the kiranas. For a retailer in this category, a proper value proposition with private labeling is the key to make the store profitable", quips Mr Kumar. What also drives a footfall in these outlets are the availability of the fresh products. Visiting many of the affected store, you will find the shelves empty with very little or nothing to choose from. Stock and supply chain were not in sync. "Having a sound supply chain and well stocked stores is an absolute must as nothing is more fatal for a retail business than disappointed customers who do not find products in the store. Having processes for the retail operation and trained store staff adhering to certain store operating principles are equally important at the front-end during the growth" explains Ms Saxena.
Be: Home which was relaunched in 2008, with the intent of selling premium fashion designer labels in soft furnishings at affordable prices, sourced from across the globe in large volumes, closed down all its four stores within two years of its operation. This can also be the result of venturing into the space which is already cramped up with major players like Future Group, Bombay Dyeing, Shoppers Stop and many more. The timing was also not perfect for a brand which is primarily an apparel retailer to venture into a new space. Thus, it becomes very important to evaluate the market before taking the plunge.
Economic Slowdown, A Spoilsport
Vishal Retail, which created history by creating 149 stores in a span of almost 10 years, bore the brunt of economic slowdown. "The recent global turmoil, which affected the Indian retail industry deeply, had implications on Vishal Retail also to some point. But Vishal Retail has stood through all the odds and managed 35% YoY Sales growth last quarter", says Mr Agarwal.
But then there are retailers who were extremely cautious during the slowdown and made very calculative moves to see the light of post-recession. Big retailers like Reliance and Spencer’s went on the back foot and let the rough weather pass. They slowed down expansion, started cost cutting and today they are back again healthy in the same old ways. For Lifestyle, recession was like a blessing in disguise and just by tweaking the price range to suit the condition, their business grew four times.
"To survive the lows in a business cycle, the retailers
should have focused on its core strengths in terms of its product
offers and formats. The retailers should have had a grip on the
performance of various product categories and pruned down the
non-performing categories", opines Ms Saxena, further adding
that the retailers that survived the economic downturn took the
market slump as an opportunity to critically analyse their operations,
closed down non performing categories and stores, and made corrections
in their back-end processes rather than amplifying the weaknesses
through rapid expansion.
admin
September 15, 2010
RETAILER,
Vrinda Oberai
September
2010
Initially, stocking additional merchandise was treated to be
a tool for branding but nowadays the same has managed to become
a source of additional revenue. Retail chains like Barista Lavaza,
Costa Coffee and Gloria Jeans Coffees among others are witnessing
an upswing when it comes to adding up to their sales by retailing
a broad inventory of coffee equipments and related merchandise.
Products on offer
Some of the coffee equipments and other related merchandise that
one can find at coffee outlets include plungers, thermos, coffee
beans, mugs, coffee makers, jars, insulated and designer sippers.
Thus, coffee shops can now be trusted for being one stop shop
for all your coffee related merchandise!
Mr Saurabh Swarup, Head- Marketing & Product Development,
Barista Lavazza says, “Our focus has always been to provide
a differentiated offering. We do this by using a guest touchpoint
model that focusses on the product innovation. The launches are
based on global inputs from Lavazza team, international trends
and guest feedback with the objective of creating guest excitement
with relevant offerings.”
However, things at Costa Coffee are bit different! Mr Santhosh
Unni, CEO, Costa Coffee (India) comments, “Branded merchandise
does not form a part of Costa’s standard product offering
at the stores. However we do offer our consumers, merchandise
from time to time as a part of our store promotions and as a part
of corporate gifting.”
Driving factor
Merchandising at cafes is known to be driven by two main factors.
Mr Devangshu Dutta, Chief Executive, Third Eyesight avers the
two factors to be – merchandise that is related (such as percolators,
grinders, whole roasted beans) but which is not available easily
outside the café and the desire to associate with the brand
image even outside the café. The factors explain the purchase
of mugs, T-shirts and other merchandise such as music CDs that
help to carry the ‘mood’ even post the experience at
the coffee outlet. Mr Dutta opines, “The first factor is
more of a driver in India at the moment for brand-extending products,
the brand itself needs to be extremely strong, consistent and
desirable. This is not yet the case for the cafe brands present
in India presently. However, the related products also need to
be carefully thought as the profile of the customers at each outlet
is quite diverse and not all outlets may be appropriate for the
offering of the associated merchandise.”
The resultant sales
Merchandise is undoubtedly a tool for building brand awareness
which indirectly has a positive impact on footfalls. At Costa
Coffee, the addition made to the revenue generation by the additional
merchandise comes up to be Rs 4 to 5 crore/annum. “The merchandise
definitely helped us to increase the footfalls. However we do
not look at merchandising as a way of increasing footfalls but
as a part that helps complete the ‘coffee experience’,”
shares Manish Tandon, President- Citymax Hospitality India Pvt
Ltd. Mr Swarup adds, “All the coffee lovers who come to Barista
Lavazza store for enhanced experience always pick up merchandise,
showcasing their love for the brand. Barista Lavazza offers high
standard and great quality merchandise. The café chain
does see some additional footfalls through this category as well.”
Marketing strategy
Targeted and successful merchandise stays in people’s lives
and minds for a long time. It is pertinent to bear in mind that
the item in context does not only suit the company products but
also builds a strong feeling of connection between the target
customers and the brand.
Mr Tandon comments, “The most effective way of selling these
items is through creating visibility. We keep the merchandise
close to the counter to make it more visible. Also, suggestive
selling works well for us.”
Mr Swarup adds, “Merchandise displays are an integral element
of the overall merchandising concept which seeks to promote product
sales. The recently launched open display cabinets help the consumers
to see and feel the product while making a choice before the purchase.”
Perceiving the future
The merchandising business in India has already taken off in a
big way riding on the ongoing retail revolution. According to
the industry analysts, the business is set to triple over the
next two years to an estimated Rs 900 crores. Mr Swarup comments,
“When consumers purchase, wear or display corporate-branded
merchandise, they’re demonstrating their brand loyalty and
advocacy. It’s a brand manager’s dream.”
He also avers that character merchandising as a business is now
booming in India. As per the internet data, the trade source estimates
that Harry Potter merchandising sales were at a whopping Rs 1
crore. Following a close second with an estimated sales figure
of Rs 60 lakh a year were the WWF characters. Krish made around
Rs 25 lakh while Hanuman was not far behind, clocking around Rs
20 lakh in sales.
Mr Tandon opines, “We look at merchandising as something
that adds value to the whole guest experience rather than just
a source of revenue. We want our guest to remember us through
our merchandise even when they are not in the café.”
Mr Unni shares that Costa is an aspirational brand within the
cafe category and consumers want to be associated with the brand.
However, merchandise will play a role in the coming years, but
will never be more significant than the core product offering
of these coffee chains, which is coffee itself.
admin
September 12, 2010
IMAGES
BUSINESS OF FASHION, September 2010
Nalini
Singh
A sales promotion or “sale” works as a branding tool. It is an effective way to stimulate demand. But to perform better and stay ahead in the competition, retailers need to understand the cause and effect relationship of sales promotion.
Given the growing importance of sales promotion, there has been considerable interest in its effect on different dimensions, such as the consumers’ price perceptions, brand choice, brand switching behaviour, evaluation of brand equity, effect on brand perception and so on. The concept of sales promotion in India is as popular as in any other Western country. But unlike the West, the number of retailers factoring the expenses of sales promotion is negligible.
In a country like India, sales promotion takes place at least four times a year. The approach and the strategies of an Indian retailer are different compared to the West. An average Indian retailer is only interested in the sales figures. Few look at the footfalls, conversion, average bill size, etc. during promotions. And even fewer measure profits by relating revenues to costs of promotions. Isolating the effect of different promotions in a situation of promotion overlap is not even considered.
So, we come to the question: Do Indian retailers by and large ignore or underplay the cost of promotion while assessing the success of a sale campaign? “It is a debatable issue. We at our level try to be judicious with our expense budget and the sale forecast. We never underplay promotion activities but ensure that there is no overdoing,” says Sanjay Arora, Marketing Manager, Chunmun.
Strategies affecting sales promotion
Today, we find marketers making use of the smallest of excuses
to launch a promotional campaign. Father’s day, Mother’s
Day, Women’s Day, you even have a Grandfather’s Day
and Grandmother’s Day – name it and there’s a day
to celebrate. These are largely gimmicks to attract footfalls
and, if figures are to be believed, pretty much mimic a global
phenomenon. “We are in the process of converting big days
into properties and recently have done a few like Father’s
day, Women’s Day and Mother’s Day, to name a few,”
says Samir Sahni, Director, Ritu Wears.
The primary objective of a sales promotion is to bolster sales by predicting and modifying the purchasing behaviour and pattern of target customers. Not only that, it also attracts new customers while retaining the existing ones. With so much cut-throat competition, no retailer wants to lag behind in capitalising every emotion and sentiment of the consumer. Once one big retailer starts, it becomes a trend.
Today, the Indian consumer has more disposable income and is more inclined towards the higher-end brands. They wait for the time when brands offer the best discounts. Last year, retailers preponed festival sales or ran them for extended periods to be able to clear the inventory. Many brands went on sale before the usual last week of July. Moreover, stores are still stocking more discounted items than fresh merchandise.
A pertinent question here would be that apart from the “end of season sale”, do other campaigns employ the “push and pull strategy” during the year. “Yes, they do but not to a great extent because footfall during these periods are not as high,” says Arora at Chunmun.
Interestingly, Independence Day Week is becoming another popular significant event arousing interest among retailers in India. Almost all retail chains – big or small – have come up with special deals and drawn up ambitious sales figures for this event. However, these could be strong indications of modern retail in India. Indian retailers have successfully created newer shopping seasons to drive consumption by providing special deals.
This trend garnered 10-15 per cent incremental growth in sales. According to industry circles, an apparel store, during any big promotions, can easily achieve sales of Rs.50-60 lakh a day.
Growth through “end-of-season sale”
“Generally, as per collection, sales increase more than two-folds,”
says Arora. On an average, a brand doubles its sales through the
end-of-season sales. Samir Sahni at Ritu Wears explains, “The
brand easily achieves 70 per cent of the top-line growth through
this particular promotional mix.”
Studying the Indian retail market, we find that an average company in the country focuses more on top-line growth and decides the success of the brand based on the net sales which according to them automatically improves profitability. Typically, when a retailer plans an expensive promotion, he needs to hire extra staff and increases ad spends. On the face of it, profits are high, but actually short term. Competitors are bound to come out with better offers, better products and better features, and the whole effect will be neutralised. The hype may lead to more customers trying their product and services. In the process of attracting more customers, the retailers forget that these are fair-weather customers and are attracted only by the discounted rates. Meanwhile, when the customers find that the offerings are of much value they exit.
“Most of the time a promotion that offers a great price advantage to the consumer is seen as successful as it allows retailers to get rid of old stock. However, the cannibalisation of sales of other dull-price merchandise is not taken into account. Hence, it is not merely about what happened due to the promotion, it is also about what didn’t happen as a result of the promotion,” points Sahni at Wazir Advisors.
Cannabilisation of the product
Cannabilisation of the product could be one of the major drawbacks
due to heavy sales promotion, but most of the brands try different
strategies to avoid it as much as possible. “Since the promotions
we run always have time tag lines, there is no question of cannabilisation,”
says Samir Sahni, Ritu Wears.
“While there is a possibility that promotion of one category could cannibalise other categories within a store, a successful promotion would ensure higher footfalls and overall higher demand, to offset any potential cannibalisation,” says Devangshu Dutta, CEO, Third Eyesight.
Sales promotions effects are short term, unlike other integrated marketing communication tools, and also the strategies do not have everlasting impact on the brand. Increases in sales often last only during the period of promotions. After that no consumer loyalty is noticed because the majority of consumers in an aggressive promotion have tried the brand already. Sales promotion also leads to high price sensitivity; consumers try their level best to purchase the item during the time of sales only. This leads to reduction in the profit margin of the brand. Sales promotion is a calculated risk, but one that needs to be planned and handled carefully to be truly effective.
Business owners should recognise that sales gains from promotional campaigns often falter after an initial spurt. One may sacrifice the long-term brand equity for achieving short-term goals but that is a myopic way of conducting business. Moreover, too many discounts will dilute the image of exclusivity.
Having said that, it is also true that sales promotion could be a good opportunity to create a strong and loyal client base. Retailers can target a new segment in the market by focusing on demography and psychographics of users such as users with high and low purchasing needs.
Promotional overlapping
Promotional overlapping is another factor which could spring up
due to two or more promotions taking place at the same time. This
leads to confusion and delivery of fuzzy messages to consumers.
Some brands do successfully manage two promotional campaigns simultaneously. A recent example is Levi’s, who are currently managing their “end-of-season sale” with a “change your world” campaign in order to celebrate 15 years in India.
“How can one manage promotional overlaps?” Arora asks. “As a retailer we always ensure that there is no overlapping. If we have net price counters they don’t merge with the routine discount offer.”
Cost of a month-long campaign
“The cost for a store chain like us is in the range of Rs.60
lakh to Rs.85 lakh in terms of activities. We spend 70-80 per
cent on public address media (i.e., newspapers, hoarding and FM
radio etc.) and the rest is for in-house activities,” Arora
reveals.
Typically, a brand spends 70 per cent of the total expense on above the line expenditure (ATL), with the balance being assigned for below the line expenditure (BTL). The reason could be that publicity vehicles such as media, radio or hoardings build up the top of mind awareness (TOMA) very well.
“We spend around Rs.70 lakh, wherein ATL is Rs.45 lakh and BTL is Rs.25 lakh,” says Samir Sahni at Ritu Wears.
The brands use ATL because they think this strategy works for brand recall. On the other hand, the brand incorporating BTL will provide hard numbers in terms of revenue increase.
Case Study: A Successful Promotion Partnership
On 19 August, “Groupon” the site known for its local
daily deals often offered by small businesses including restaurants,
gyms and spas in partnership with the fashion brand Gap launched
the deal to offer $50 worth of apparel and accessories at a lowly
price of $25. With a $1 billion valuation and more than 9.4 million
Groupons sold since its launch, it has become one of the most
recognised group-buying sites on the web. By the end of the first
day of their launch, 441,000 Groupons were sold, bringing in more
than $11 million. Groupon usually splits the revenue with partners,
but declined to disclose its share. The discount on Gap items
caused visits to Groupon.com to increase by 37 per cent on the
day of their launch and 51 per cent after a week. Interested purchasers
were also visiting Gap.com immediately after Groupon.com, and
the share of downstream traffic from Groupon.com to Gap.com jumped
to 4.18 per cent on the first day of there launch itself. This
figure is strong from a customer acquisition standpoint because
53 per cent of the visitors referred from Groupon.com to Gap.com
were new, meaning they had not visited the website in the past
30 days. Also aiding in the success of the promotions was high
consumer awareness and shoppers actively seeking the discount.
Searches for “Gap coupons” ranked 4th on the first day
among the search terms driving traffic to Groupon.com. The discount
was also being promoted via Twitter’s Earlybird Offers account.
Means of internal assessment
“Through the assessment of top-line incremental numbers,
we define the success of sales promotion,” says Sahni at
Ritu Wears. This is the major swing among retailers. Most of the
Indian retailers judge the success of any sales promotion through
the top-line growth they have made. Sometimes a retailer forgets
the other main objectives of the sales promotion, in the rush
to concentrate on only net sales made.
Now, the question is, apart from net sales, what all can be achieved through a sales promotion? Most retailers complain that customers only get attracted towards their brand because of the discount coupons or other promotional offers, and once they get it, they keep looking for it. This impacts the business negatively. The solution to this is (as we’ve said earlier) to concentrate on parameters other than just net sales.
Sales promotions must move the product. This usually means more sales, but not always. For example, if you run a scheme in which you are giving one product free with another, you may draw more products out of the pipeline, but overall profitability may nosedive. Also, increased product movement can generate deduction of sales after the promotional period. This is something retailers need to anticipate.
Finally, the question is how to assess the efficacy of sales promotion. The most common method is to examine the sales data before, during and after a promotion. Suppose a company has 10 per cent market share before the period of promotion, which goes up to 14 per cent during the promotion, falls to 9 per cent immediately after the promotion, and rises to 12 per cent in the post promotion period. It shows that the promotion has attracted new customers and also activated more purchasing by the existing customers of that particular brand. After the promotion, sales fell as consumers worked down their inventories. The long-run rise to 12 per cent indicates that the company gained some new customers.
“We have come across businesses where the sales and merchandising teams are incentivised purely on sales achieved. This only results in shelfstuffing, aggressive advertising and discounts. While top-line targets are achieved, the business is not really healthier at the end of the exercise. In Third Eyesight’s view ‘return on investment’ is a good method to apply to promotions, where ‘return’ is the net margin, and investment includes all promotional expenses. Good businesses with mature and transparent processes would evaluate the success of any promotion on the basis of margins retained by the business after all expenses of running the promotion have been accounted for. Costs of each promotion can easily be monitored separately, as can the sales achieved of the products being promoted. In more sophisticated data-driven organisations, analytics can play an enormous role in planning promotions and in tracking their success,” says Devangshu Dutta.
If the company’s product is not superior, the brand’s share is likely to return to its pre-promotion level. The sales promotion can only change the time pattern of requirement rather than the total demand. The promotion may have covered its cost but more likely did not. One study of more than 1,000 promotions concluded that only 16 per cent of the total expenses get paid off.
Holistically viewed, we can see that despite the cons, sales promotion will continue to play a growing role in the promotion mix and will continue to be one of the most important tools. To make it more effective, retailers need to define the sales promotion objectives, selection of appropriate tools and proper construction of sales promotion programmes. Every paisa spent should be accounted for. Only then will Indian retailers spot the cause and effect relationship of sales promotion.
admin
September 7, 2010
By Devangshu Dutta
In the midst of extensive or frequent civil works, fluorescent
high-visibility clothing contributes to the invisibility of
the individual, and can serve as a superb disguise. Similarly,
in the midst of extensive research and in-depth analyses,
basic insights can go unnoticed.
Erich Joachimsthaler has plenty of examples in his book Hidden in Plain Sight to drive home the point that attention to stuff that is not so obvious to competition can lead to brilliant success such as Sony’s growth through innovative products (the WalkmanT, for one) that met unexpressed consumer needs. Conversely, an inability to spot this can bring even the leaders down, illustrated once again by Sony’s loss of leadership in mobile personal entertainment to Apple’s iPod.
The challenge for companies is to uncover the hidden opportunities by looking into their business from the outside rather than the usual inside-outwards view, and by accurately defining the ecosystem of demand. For most management professionals, this will be harder than it seems.
The exercise begins with the question, "Why didn’t we think of that?" This is intended to remind the reader of how the obvious escapes attention as we sink deeper and deeper into complex analysis and in developing ever more complicated scenarios. And Joachimsthaler sets out a framework that he believes can help larger companies to innovate in a structured way.
Of course, the reader may feel differently, and quote George Bernard Shaw who divided the world into two kinds of people, the reasonable and the unreasonable, and credited innovation to the latter. Or one may agree with Henry Ford who, apparently, felt that customers did not really know what they wanted. He is reported to have quipped: "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said, ‘A faster horse’"
Yes, at the cutting edge, innovation may seem to be more about the innovator’s creative desire to do something different, and less about "meeting customer needs". Yet, it is the unmet and, more importantly, unexpressed customer needs, that offer the greatest source of competitive advantage.
This is why innovation seems to spring more from small companies, or companies that are started up around a specific idea that is unique or new. In such a small company or a start-up, typically the founder/innovator/inventor is drawn from the same pool as the target customer. Therefore, while they may be addressing a need they feel acutely, the innovators are unconsciously plugged into their customer’s unmet/unexpressed needs. There are seldom any silos; the whole team is generally focussed on the one problem to be solved.
However, as companies grow larger, functional specialisation emerges — division of labour based on skill-set is deemed to be a more efficient way of doing things. The design folk design based on "trends", the marketing folk market as they know best, and the manufacturing folk produce to specification and the "demand" generated.
With this speciality of skills taking over, there is a growing disconnect between their efforts to dig for insight and the gold that is "hidden in plain sight". While data is available in abundance, real knowledge is scarce, and insight just gets buried in well-structured processes and hand-offs between functional silos.
This trend has only accelerated in the past 15-20 years with pervasive information technology that enables the mundane operational process to the most strategic. Never before have management teams been so focussed on information and analyses. As businesses grow, data warehousing and data mining are defined as the competitive cutting edge, pushed along by interested parties (including IT solution providers, but that is another book!).
However, in reality, excessive information is increasingly passed off as knowledge. An inward focus on the management team"s own objectives is often disguised as insight gained on the customer or the market. Functional specialists analyse the market, the latent needs and the gaps in their own way, and if the company is lucky to have some generalists, some of those dots get joined to form a more complete picture. ERICH JOACHIMSTHALER , is the founder and CEO of Vivaldi Partners, a strategy, innovation and marketing consulting company.
It is in reminding management of this reality that Joachimsthaler"s book provides a tremendous service. It presents a well thought out model named, curiously enough, DIG, — short for Demand-First Innovation and Growth. The three elements laid out sequentially begin with a framework for defining the demand landscape, identifying the opportunity space within it, and then creating a strategic blueprint for action.
Joachimsthaler’s process to define the demand landscape requires managers to put themselves in the customer"s shoes — a process demonstrated with examples from Proctor and Gamble and Pepsi"s Frito Lay. Using the customer"s goals, actions, priorities (there’s the "GAP"), needs and frustrations, demand clusters can be developed and filled out with additional research. The strategic fit between these demand clusters and the brand can then feed into the next steps of identifying the opportunity space.
The filters, or lenses, as the author calls them, are the "eye of the customer", the "eye of the market"; and the "eye of the industry". At every step, assumptions and presumptions need to be challenged. Using these lenses, the sweet spot or spots and the growth platforms can be identified, and extrapolated into the strategy. On the downside, the book is clearly about a framework, which may have been best detailed in an article, rather than being stretched over a book.
The author does stress at one point that it is not about
"brainstorming", but about structured
thinking. However, he seems to do this in a tone that suggests
brainstorming as something vaguely distasteful due to the
lack of directional structure.
While examples from the companies studied keep the text alive,
yet in places one struggles to correlate the examples with
the framework. Indeed, there may well be too much structure
to this book, and not enough examples of how inter-disciplinary
thinking and functioning can actually produce sustained innovation.
Understanding the model itself can be a fairly involved process. The best way to tackle it may be to approach it as a project, and use the DIG framework as a how-to guide for a real problem. If you are a structured, methodical, sequential kind of manager and possibly work in a large company, the book could provide tools to put that thinking to work for innovation in a team. On the other hand, if you are more of a "people person", you may want to leave this book alone.
Devangshu Dutta is chief executive of Third Eyesight, a retail
consultancy
Devangshu Dutta
September 4, 2010
The last three years have been a roller coaster ride for food & grocery modern retail in India.
Progressive Grocer’s India edition was launched in September 2007, during what was an excellent series of years for the modern retail trade in the country.
It was a year after the launch of Reliance Fresh, and a few months after the acquisition of Trinethra’s chain of 170 stores by the traditionally conservative Aditya Birla Group. Spencer’s announced its plans to raise capital for expansion, while Food Bazaar together with its value-format non-food twin Big Bazaar already accounted for more than half the Future Group’s sales.
Other than the established corporate groups, new entrants such as Wadhawan were also well into growth through mergers and acquisitions, including their purchase of Sangam, Hindustan Unilever’s experiment at retailing directly to consumers, Sabka Bazaar and The Home Store.
The four largest foreign retailers were also making their presence felt through Walmart’s announcement of a joint-venture with Bharti in August, Tesco’s and Carrefour’s intensive investigations of the market and negotiations with potential partners, and Metro’s announcement of its planned growth to 100 outlets.
The modern retail engine seemed to be chugging along strongly. But there were also spots of trouble in paradise.
Protests against the opening of corporate chain stores were seen in a few states. In some cases state administrations even formally stepped in to ask for closure of corporate chains to avoid civic trouble, and it looked as if the lights were going out even before the party had really started!
Along with the battle between modern and traditional, both sides of the debate on foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Indian retail sector were also ramping up their arguments. There was vocal opposition from emerging large Indian retailers, as well as the small traders group, while investors and some of the prominent retailers championed the cause of foreign investment.
In both debates, international examples of the damage wrought by large or foreign retailers to local economies were quoted by those opposed to corporate retailers. And in both, the developmental aspects of modern retail were quoted by proponents of modern retail and FDI.
At Third Eyesight, in early 2007 we had carried out a study (“From Ripples to Waves”) on the increasing impact of modern retail on the supply chain. Amongst the study’s respondents, both retailers and suppliers had favourable things to say about the growth of modern retail and its impact on the supply chains for various products. There was not just talk of efficiency with fewer layers of transactions and lower costs, but also of effectiveness, with suppliers reporting 10-25% higher per square foot sales in modern retail stores as compared to their displays in traditional independent stores.
After years of resisting the impending changes to their ordering and servicing structures, major Indian FMCG and food brands became busy setting up or strengthening teams focussed on the modern trade or ‘organised’ corporate customers.
The market was rich with format experimentation for food and general merchandise retail, typically between 1,000 sq ft and 10,000 sq ft, but also with a gradual growing emphasis on 20,000-80,000 sq ft supermarkets and hypermarkets.
Literally hundreds of food brands from other countries actively sought to tap into the growing Indian market, and modern retailers offered them a familiar environment and a well-managed platform for launch.
At the same time, plenty of respondents also said that they had not made any significant changes to their business. Either inertia or fear of channel conflict was preventing them from pushing ahead with newer business models.
In short, there was no dearth of action and contradiction, no matter where you looked.
However, towards the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008, we had a sense of foreboding. With the rush to expand the store network to get first to some yet-invisible finish line, both property acquisition and human resource costs were driven up by a feeling of a shortage in both. I recall writing a column around that time, urging retailers to look at store productivity as their first priority (See: Priority #1: Store Productivity, Same Store Growth).
By the middle of 2008 the crisis was evident. There was a lot of square footage, much of it in the wrong places. There were issues with the supply chain for managing fresh and perishables, those very products that drive frequent footfall into a food store. More importantly, the global financial storm had started gathering strength, reducing liquidity in the market and making investors and lenders look more closely at existing business models.
The spectacular meltdown of Subhiksha in 2008, and the more gradual but equally deep impact on other businesses was visible. And worrying. Players as disparate as Reliance, with its ambitious plans to grow into a Rs. 300 billion retail juggernaut, and the Shopper’s Stop premium format Hypercity seem to take a break to rethink.
2008 and 2009 were years that I am sure many retailers would like to forget, but they were also very valuable. Some people have compared these years to the churning of the ocean (manthan) by the devas and the asuras in Indian mythology, with the deadly poison halahal coming to the surface before the divine nectar amrit could be reached.
In these two years, we have seen stores closed, formats changed, and organisations made slimmer. Store staff have discovered how to live with small changes like higher ambient air-conditioning temperatures, and are learning the more important science of higher transaction values, even with leaner inventories. Management teams are becoming more accustomed to looking at retail metrics other than only sales growth that could be achieved from new square footage. Vendors are finding newer ways to make their brands more relevant to consumers and to the retailers.
More importantly, these years have also underlined the importance of India as a growth market to non-Indian companies.
2010 so far seems a far happier year. Income and GDP growth figures look much healthier. Real estate inventories in malls that were not released in 2007-2009 are coming on the market, many at terms that are more favourable than earlier. Retailers’ financial results look healthier.
There could always be the temptation to rush headlong into growth again. But I don’t think food retailers or their vendors should drop their guard yet.
The coming months and years need significant sharpening up of customer insight, merchandise and inventory planning capabilities and supply chains. Operational assessments, analytics, organisational capability building, are all tools which will need to be looked at closely.
We are at the cusp of the next growth curve, as the population grows and matures, and the market become more sophisticated.
Though the large-small, local-foreign debate isn’t closed yet, the much-awaited approval from the government to allow foreign investment into multi-brand retail businesses may be around the corner.
Even if FDI doesn’t happen immediately, the majors are already in or preparing to enter and ride the consumption growth that will logically happen. In addition to its support to Bharti’s Easyday chain, Walmart has launched its cash and carry operation, Bestprice. Carrefour reportedly is looking to open its first Indian (wholesale) outlet by November in New Delhi on its own, even as rumours of a partnership with the Future Group fly thick and fast. And Tesco is steadily steaming ahead with the Tata group.
And practically every month we are seeing new products and even new brands being launched by Indian and non-Indian companies.
An old saying goes: the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
From the tumultuous events of the last three years, it seems that the Indian food retail sector must have travelled at least a few hundred miles already. In one sense it has. Many of the developments that we’ve seen in three years would have taken at least a couple of decades in the more mature markets.
However, in another sense, the food and grocery modern retail sector in India has only taken the first few steps, with much to be accomplished still. The sector remains fragmented, and wide swathes of the market are yet to be penetrated – not just by modern trade, but even by brands that already supply traditional retail. The blend of players and business models, not to forget the spicy regional mix of different market segments, promises valuable lessons not only for those in India but potentially for other markets in the world.
There are very big questions seeking answers. How to improve agricultural productivity so that food security is ensured. How to save the abundant harvests rather than letting them rot in unprotected storage dumps. How to ensure adequate calories and nutrition get delivered not just to the wealthy and the middle class, but also to the poorest in the country.
On the retail side, the Indian versions of Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco are possibly still in the making, and may yet surprise us with their origins and growth stories. And e-commerce is a work-in-progress that may be the dark horse, or forever the black sheep.
I think the big stories are yet to unfold, and the unfolding will be exciting, whether we are just watching or actively participating in the modernisation of the Indian food retail business.
